Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Willmott’s documentary based on the life of local civil rights icon Alvin Brooks is to be showcased at the second annual Juneteenth Film Festival in North Kansas City.
Willmott, who won an Oscar for co-writing BlacKkKlansman with Spike Lee in 2019, has established himself as a filmmaker with a unique voice. The Junction City, Kansas, native and current professor at the University of Kansas often uses cinema to examine and tackle social and political issues.
Willmott is arguably one of the most important filmmakers working today. No one has captured the Black experience through cinema better. From his first film, Ninth Street, and the brilliant satire C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America to the quietly powerful Jayhawker and the moving and insightful The 24th, Willmott has delivered keenly meaningful observations on race and culture.
His current project is no different. Willmott is directing and producing a documentary The Heroic True-Life Adventures of Alvin Brooks on the life of Brooks, a longtime local civil rights activist. The film was produced in conjunction with the Black Archives of Mid-America, which will also archive the film as official documentation on race relations in Kansas City. Getting the project financed was a total community endeavor, with donations and support coming from area business leaders, politicians and supporters.
The film is based on Brooks’ 2021 memoir, Binding Us Together: A Civil Rights Activist Reflects on a Lifetime of Community and Public Service. The 92-year old has long been a stalwart of the Kansas City community. The film explores his time as a police officer, detective, mayor pro tem of Kansas City and founder of the AdHoc Group Against Crime.
The film is an inspiring narrative that is inextricably linked to the nation’s past and present. In his book, Brooks shares engaging, funny and tragic stories about his life and his career of advocacy in Kansas City, and Willmott tells his story with insight and passion.
The Juneteenth Film Festival, one of the few in the country to celebrate the Juneteenth holiday, provides a platform for independent Black filmmakers to showcase their work. This year’s festival will primarily feature films written, directed and produced by Kansas Citians. There will be two feature films and four documentaries.
In addition to the Alvin Brooks film, the festival will feature Kansas City Dreamin’, a documentary that chronicles KC’s Black music history. It features interviews with Melissa Etheridge, Tech N9ne, Bobby Watson, Oleta Adams, Lonnie McFadden, Willmott and more, along with segments on Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Janelle Monáe, Big Joe Turner and other Kansas City natives.
The festival also includes The Pistol, a gripping documentary that delves into the real-life accounts of notorious local gangster Kenneth Rayford. Directed by Paul Rayford, the film details the exploits of Kenneth from his time as a youth growing up on the mean streets of KC through adulthood, when he ran the city’s streets. Through interviews with Kenneth and his accomplices combined with actual news footage, the documentary reveals the life of a real underworld crime figure. The Pistol paints a compelling portrait of a man who literally dedicated his entire life to the criminal underworld, maintained a solid reputation and actually lived to talk about it.
What’s N’ Kansas City? is a fun look at the businesses and establishments located primarily on the city’s east side that make Kansas City unique. Street journalist Skiem Hiem takes viewers on a unique guided tour of the places at the heart of Kansas City’s Black culture.
Feature films at the festival include Drout 2, the continuation of the underground hit coming-of-age crime drama Drout, which was released in 2021, and Underneath: Children of the Sun, which has become a festival favorite around the country. This mind-bending Afrofuturist story embarks on a breathtaking journey of galactic politics, heritage and destiny. In 1857, an enslaved person in Little Dixie, Missouri, is thrust into an intergalactic crisis after helping an alien from a crashed spaceship. An ultra-powerful alien artifact passes through generations of bloody fingers and inheritors here on Earth, including the present, and ultimately leads to an epic battle for control. Underneath: Children of the Sun is St. Louis filmmaker David Kirkman’s feature film debut.
All films will be screened at the Screenland Armour Theatre in North Kansas City. For more information, visit Juneteenth Film Festival page on Facebook. Tickets can be purchased at screenland.com.
JUNETEENTH FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
June 4
Black Filmmakers Happy Hour hosted by Film KC, Screenland Armour, 5 pm.
June 4
Film KC presents Underneath: Children of the Sun directed by David Kirkman, Screenland Armour, 7 pm.
June 5
The Pistol directed by Paul and Kenneth Rayford, Screenland Armourm 6:30 and 8:30 pm.
June 9
“We Hanging with Clarence” party hosted by rapper Roblo DaStar, The Velvet Freeze Daiquiris/Smaxx, 7 pm.
June 12
Film KC presents Kansas City Dreamin’ directed by Diallo Javonne French, Screenland Armour, 6:30 pm.
June 12
What’s N’ Kansas City? Directed by Skiem Hiem, Screenland Armour, 8:30 pm.
June 19
Binding Us Together directed by Kevin Willmott, Screenland Armour, 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm.
June 26
Drout 2 directed by Isiah King, Screenland Armour, 6:30 pm.
